war
Rise of the war machines: What drove the evolution of military technologies?
Historians know how military technologies evolved, but the reasons why remain poorly understood.
Why doesn’t the U.S. win wars anymore?
Paradoxically, we lose wars because the world is peaceful and the U.S. is powerful.
Why the U.S. is trapped in “endless war”
Instead of just Afghanistan, the U.S. military ought to withdraw from the entire Middle East and much of the rest of the world.
American imperialism: fat-shaming Uncle Sam
Opponents of 19th-century American imperialism were not above body-shaming the personification of the U.S. government.
Nazis created an anti-Semitic Bible and Aryan Jesus
A Nazi institute produced a Bible without the Old Testament that portrayed Jesus as an Aryan hero fighting Jewish people.
How the “Bomber Mafia” planned to win World War II with just a few dozen bombs
Can a war be won from the air? A group of renegade pilots in the 1930s thought so.
“Game of Thrones” in real life: How kinship changed war in early modern Europe
When the mutual relatives of two royal families died, the countries were likelier to go to war.
Autonomous killer robots may have already killed on the battlefield
A brief passage from a recent UN report describes what could be the first-known case of an autonomous weapon, powered by artificial intelligence, killing in the battlefield.
The cost of world peace? It’s much less than the price of war
The world's 10 most affected countries are spending up to 59% of their GDP on the effects of violence.
What a carve-up: when French and British ruled the world
James Gillray's 'plumb-pudding' caricature is "probably the most famous political cartoon of all time."
Best. Science. Fiction. Show. Ever.
"The Expanse" is the best vision I've ever seen of a space-faring future that may be just a few generations away.
How art and design can rebuild a community
MIT professor Azra Akšamija creates works of cultural resilience in the face of social conflict.
In France’s Red Zones, World War I never ended
More than a century after the end of hostilities in 1918, some battlefields of WWI are still deadly enough to kill you.
These are the world’s greatest threats in 2021
We look back at a year ravaged by a global pandemic, economic downturn, political turmoil and the ever-worsening climate crisis.
How will we govern super-powerful AI?
The AI constitution can mean the difference between war and peace—or total extinction.
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A brief history of human dignity
What is human dignity? Here's a primer, told through 200 years of great essays, lectures, and novels.
Are humans cruel by nature?
Historian Rutger Bregman argues that the persistent theory that most people are monsters is just wrong.
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6 min
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When Christmas was cancelled: a lesson from history
Christmas was banned in 1647 and rebellions broke out across the country.
A normal tourist map, “but everything is negative”
'Critical Tourist Map of Oslo' offers uniquely dark perspective on Norway's capital.
War in the time of Neanderthals: How our species battled for supremacy for over 100,000 years
To war is human – and Neanderthals were very like us.
The horror of the air war, in one stark map
This graph shows how badly German cities were hit by Allied bombing raids.
Jon Stewart: Congress is abandoning veterans exposed to toxic ‘burn pits’
Stewart is supporting a new bill that aims to extend health care and disability benefits to veterans who served alongside burn pits.
Woodpecker wars are intense and even draw a crowd
Acorn woodpecker battles over prized territory are serious business.
Navy SEALs: How to build a warrior mindset
SEAL training is the ultimate test of both mental and physical strength.
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16 min
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DNA shows Scythian warrior mummy was a 13-year-old girl
Thanks to modern technology, we can reexamine our assumptions about ancient warriors.
Exactly 75 years ago, time was up for the Nazis
U.S. Army maps show how Western and Eastern Fronts met by May 1, 1945.
Can foreign intervention lead to peaceful solutions?
Despite potential good intentions, interventionist policies are often viewed by classical liberals as violations of individual freedoms.
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Secret bunker from WWII found in Scotland
Winston Churchill had a secret army, and bunkers like this would have hidden them during a German invasion.
How the Nazis faked part of Hamburg to fool Allied bombers
'Operation Invisibility Cloak' was a waste: Hamburg would soon be firebombed to bits
Humans evolved for punching, study confirms
University of Utah research finds that men are especially well suited for fisticuffs.